Easier Feeding

The girls' diet has changed a lot over the last week or so. As they near their first birthday their doctor's advice is to branch out into different foods more. Last week they started eating Cheerios. This week was yogurt, scrambled eggs, stewed pork, and celery.

Probably the biggest surprise for me was the fact that they really like natto, a stinky food traditionally eaten by those who couldn't afford meat or fish. They've loved tofu for many months. Both of them can cram down a huge volume of tofu at one sitting. But this week we tried the "learned taste" of natto. They took to it right away. I have trouble eating the stuff myself, which is saying a lot; but, they both really liked it from the beginning.

The only thing I've seen them not like is: Leia doesn't like bananas and Alisa isn't fond of stewed lentils.

Lining Up for a New Car

Leia is planning ahead. She's trying to soften me up for a new car when she turns 16. She spoke her first real word this morning: 'Daddy'. I couldn't ask for a more perfect first word.

Heart Attack Over

OK, I finally got all the data for my W-2 and 1099-B straightened out. Earlier I mentioned that my tax information was way off. That was obvious because the amount the tax forms claimed I owed was way over the total amount of money I earned. It turns out that altogether my W-2 and 1099-B's listed income more than double what I actually made. In addition, about 60% of my withheld taxes were not counted. Put that together and you can see why I freaked out when I first did my taxes.

Anyway, the error is clarified. Now its just a matter of getting all the paperwork done. The problem is, I must get it all finished by the end of May because otherwise I'll not be able to pay my life insurance premium this summer. Let's hope the IRS moves quickly enough here.

In the meantime, the economic turmoil this has caused my bank accounts has resulted in four bounced checks and a missed mortgage payment. Thank you IRS!

Updated: fixed a couple of typos.

Home Stretch

The girls are 11 months old today. I feel like we're in the home stretch. Alisa has now slept through the night for three nights in a row! My work schedule still robs me of enough sleep; but, its definitely getting better. Leia's sleep patterns are better, too; but, she caught a cold from Alisa last week. Although Alisa is pretty much through it, Leia is still in the early phases and will feel worse tomorrow.

I was worried about swine flu since Alisa's symptoms were clearly flu-like. She ended up having an ear infection. Leia will probably be the same; but, we need to be careful. We'll likely take her to the doctor if it gets worse at all just in case. There have been a handful of cases of swine flue in the area already (including three kindergarten and pre-school age children.) With about half of the workers at day care being Mexican, I'm sure they have friends or family who have recently visited Mexico.

Surrender Monkeys

Happy May Day everyone.

Enjoy it if you have the day off.

Very Pretty

My own mother would love Kona's post today. They just returned from a vacation of traveling through Texas to look for wildflowers. They came up empty. Mother Nature seems to have finally visited Austin. Very pretty.

I enjoy wildflowers or interesting arrangements myself. Arranging them was fun. I did it as a hobby for a year or so. Its a good creative outlet. You'll be surprised how you can psychoanalyze ikebaba.

Update: What the hell is ikebaba? Its supposed to be ikebana. Psychoanalyze that!

Religious Morality

Religion claims to instill morality. Yeah, right. Its sad enough that the number of people who support torture is non-zero; but, this chart from The Pew Forum lays bare another lie from those who believe in a god.



h/t Greenwald.